With the monsoon comes relief from the scorching summer heat, but it also brings the perfect conditions for moisture to spoil the quality of daily food items. Oils extracted from pressing method, ghee and honey are among the food items which become easily spoilable due to moisture and hence need extra care during the season.Namrita Malhotra, the founder and managing director of Savore, believes that monsoon is the period which truly defines the quality of pantry staples. With years of experience in producing gourmet food ingredients such as cold-pressed oils, ghee and honey, she believes that moisture may lead to spoilage of these ingredients in ways that consumers don’t even notice.
The products that suffer the most:
Cooking oil is one of the first products to suffer damage by exposure to humid air. According to Malhotra, good-quality oil is usually odorless. However, excessive humid air can affect both its aroma and appearance. For example, if the oil develops sharp or musty/bitter smells or becomes thicker than it should be, it probably means that it has deteriorated and cannot be consumed any longer.Another product that undergoes noticeable changes due to the effect of humid environment is ghee. Malhotra suggests that the latter’s smooth texture becomes grainy as a result of humidity. An important sign of spoilage is a sour or moldy smell. The author recommends focusing on the above-mentioned changes, rather than considering them to be a natural difference in the product’s quality.It is worth noting that honey is less susceptible to moisture, due to its naturally low water content. Nevertheless, it may also deteriorate if kept in a container with an insufficiently tight lid. Malhotra claims that consumers should look for such symptoms of spoilage as fermentation process, bubbling, sour or alcoholic smell, or strange changes in its thick texture.When people tend to look at the date of expiry, Malhotra thinks that the senses are the best way to judge the freshness of food during the monsoon season. Changes in the taste, touch, and appearance of the foods cannot be overlooked, regardless of whether the item is past its expiration date.Malhotra believes that consumers should rely on their sense of judgment when evaluating the freshness of kitchen items during high humidity. It is important to note that any kind of change in the appearance or smell of oils, ghee or honey should trigger inspection and not consumption of the food. During the rainy season, it becomes more important for people to check kitchen items due to increasing humidity in the surroundings.
